Winter seedlings
Flower babies
I’ve decided I’m going to limit myself to one raised bed of bulbs this year so the other one is free for hardy annuals. To that end, I began sowing annual seeds a few weeks ago to get them off to a head start in the greenhouse. I’m happy to report that every one has germinated. Now that it’s colder and they’ve basically stopped growing, I can’t decide whether to leave them undisturbed in their little soil cells or whether to prick them out into pots. I think my laziness will probably decide for me.
Here’s what I’ve got. As long as two or three of each of these make it to flowering next year I’ll be delighted.
Purple wild carrot. This is a must have - I had one or two plants this summer and it was one of my favourite flowers. The umbels go through an amazing lifecycle and look incredible at every stage.
Dill. I’m not a huge fan of yellow but I make an exception for this as it’s a beautiful umbellifer and I am a huge fan of them.
Calendula ‘Touch of Red Buff’ and ‘Sunset Buff’. I’ve really come round to calendulas, especially these fancy ones. They look lovely in the vase and they’re easy to grow. The seedlings are looking super strong and healthy.
Ammi majus. Love ammi. Another umbellifer. You can never have too many, and this one’s white, like a classy cow parsley.
Cerinthe ‘Kiwi Blue’. I felt I didn’t have enough Cerinthe this year. It’s such a good foliage plant for arrangements and this variety has especially blue flowers and glaucous leaves.
Nigella ‘Albion Green Pod’ and ‘Persian Jewels Indigo’. These are a bit of an experiment as to be honest I’ve never felt huge love for nigella. But it seems wrong to leave it out of a hardy annual line-up, and I don’t feel I’ve given it enough of a chance in past years.
Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’. This is supposed to be a long-stemmed variety especially bred for cutting, and also the flower dries, apparently. Another experiment.
Californian poppy ‘Carmine King’. These were free seeds, so I just bunged them in. I’m hoping they’ll live up to their name.
Sweet peas. Obvs.
They won’t need much water over the winter although I’ll need to make sure they don’t dry out completely. As soon as we get past the worst of the cold I’m going to plant them out - or some of them anyway - to see how early they’ll yield flowers. I’ll also direct sow some seeds for comparison.